Whether the Bank for International Settlements can, or wants to, sell its 346 tonnes of newly-acquired central bank gold is a matter of some debate.
But one thing everyone seems agreed on is that, as the FT notes, these BIS gold swaps haven’t happened very much in recent years, or at least, they haven’t been mentioned in BIS’ reports.
According to the paper, BIS has only ever “occasionally engaged” in them. Note though, that rumours of conspiratorial central bank gold swaps have existed for some time.
Anyway, from what we can see from BIS’ historic annual reports, the last acknowledged gold swaps appear have taken place in the 1960s and 1970s.* Here are a few random mentions:
Why the sudden resurgance in official BIS gold swaps now — some 40 years later?
Theories on a postcard please.
*That’s excluding swaps done as part of the creation of the European Currency Unit.
Related links:
Central banks swap tons of gold to raise cash, surprising market – WSJ
European banks use gold reserves to raise cash – FT
Getting to the bottom of negative gold-leasing rates – FT